Joint venture deal lifts Naspers’ shares

SCHIBSTED jumped the most since listing and Naspers had the biggest climb in six years after announcing a deal for joint ventures in online classifieds across four countries, including Brazil and Indonesia.

The media companies will join forces with Telenor and Singapore Press Holdings to develop online classifieds businesses also in Thailand and Bangladesh, Oslo-based Schibsted said on Thursday.

Schibsted climbed as much as 37 percent to 498.8 kroner (R816.60), the biggest advance and the highest price since its Oslo listing in 1992.

Naspers rose as much as 12 percent in Johannesburg, the steepest intraday advance since 2008.

“Schibsted and Naspers will merge their classified sites in several geographies with each party taking control in different markets,” Andrew Ross, an analyst at Barclays, said in a note on Friday.

“This forms a clear number one player in each geography and alleviates the previous aggressive competition between the two players in each of these markets.”

Schibsted, which traces its roots back to 1839, is expanding its online business as consumers move away from traditional print media.

The group, which owns Aftenposten, Norway’s largest newspaper, and Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, is seeking to replicate the success of its Finn.no, Blocket.se and Leboncoin.fr websites in regions including Asia and South America.

Naspers dominates the TV market in Africa and has interests in emerging markets around the world, including stakes in Hong Kong-based Tencent Holdings and Russian internet company Mail.ru Group. Naspers is investing heavily in operations including the classifieds and e-commerce units. “We believe by joining forces we’ll create a more vibrant market place, we’ll create more liquidity for our buyers, we’ll create a better audience for our sellers,” Naspers chief executive Bob van Dijk said on on Friday.

“We’re covering the mar-

‘This… alleviates the previous aggressive competition between the players in each of these markets’.

kets that we believe are the most important and will create a great deal of value.”

Schibsted would have a gain of 300 million kroner to 400 million kroner from the deal, which was cash-neutral and was not expected to have significant tax effects, it said. The agreement requires the EU’s approval and is expected to close early next year.

The stock rose 26 percent to 458.9 kroner at 11.12am in Oslo on Friday, for an advance of 14 percent this year, giving the company a market value of about 49.6 billion kroner. Naspers advanced 8.78 percent to close at R1 555 on Friday.

Telenor climbed 1.2 percent to 156 kroner in the Norwegian capital. – Bloomberg